the books are well-produced, each illustration and photograph is carefully chosen and illuminates the text. Grasses is an absorbing description of Poaceae and other grass-like plants. This book should serve as a wake-up call to those of us who may have thought of grasses as only the lovely green covering in lawns and parks., 'Those of us who despair of garden writing being reduced to picture captions or to 140-character long snippets can raise a cheer for the appearance of two new books in Reaktion Books' Botanical series, a compelling collection that allows knowledgeable writers to explore the social and cultural impact of plants alongside their botanical and horticultural significance. With a population explosion and the problems related to climate change, it is vital that we learn from the past in order to maintain a proper balance. There are also fascinating stories relating to their use and misuse over the centuries. Grasses provides the reader with scientific information about the history and development of the four species of grass: wheat, rice, maize, and sugar. Providing an impressive exploration of the profound impact these plants have on our survival and our pleasure, this well-illustrated book is a must have for gardeners, foodies, and environmentalists.

Harris describes this symbiotic connection against the background of climate change, contending that humans must find a way to balance their need for grass as food, as living space, and potentially even as fuel. Combining biology, sociology, and cultural history, Grasses explores how these staple crops bear the mark of human influence more visibly than any other plant and how we, in turn, are motivated to protect green space such as public parks. In this book, Stephen Harris explains the history of our relationship with these vital plants from the end of the last Ice Age to the present day. Indeed, grasses include four species-wheat, rice, maize, and sugar-that provide sixty percent of human calorie intake, and we become more and more dependent on these as the world's population increases.

Most people have memories of playing on well-manicured lawns or running across the flat green surface of a local park, but we often don't think of grasses as something we consume.

Grasses by Stephen Harris